Today, Canada celebrates its 143rd birthday. As people all across the country celebrate Canada, we pause to reflect on what makes Canada worthy of celebration. Canadians have long considered themselves a multicultural success story. “The world seems to agree,” says Andrew Cohen, the President of the Historica-Dominion Institute.

A recent survey aimed at discovering the global community's perceptions of Canada and Canadians was commissioned by The Historica-Dominion Institute. The global survey was conducted by Ipsos-Reid and presented questions to over 18,000 citizens in 24 countries representing 75% of the world’s GDP.

On the topics of immigration, diversity and multiculturalism, a majority (53%) of people said they'd live in Canada if they had an opportunity to move, including 77% of respondents from China and 68% of respondents from India. An interesting result of the survey indicates that almost one-third (30%) of Americans would also choose Canada. On average, most survey respondents (72%) believe that Canada is welcoming to immigrants, while 86% in China and 84% in India agree, while almost all (94%) Canadians think so. Eight out of ten (79%) of survey respondents would describe Canada as being tolerant of people from different racial and cultural backgrounds – equal to the proportion of Canadians (81%) who say the same thing. Most (86%) global citizens agree that Canada is a country where rights and freedoms are respected and the same portion believe that Canadians are friendly people.

Eight out of ten (79%) respondents think that Canadians enjoy one of the best qualities of life anywhere in the world. Those in Canada agree most strongly (89%) that they have the best quality of life.

The survey also found that seven out of ten (72%) agree that Canada has one of the best health care systems in the world.

Happy Birthday to you, Canada!